Is Cangjie really the founder of Chinese characters?

Hundred Mysteries of Shaanxi History

Chinese characters are not there since ancient times, they are the products of social development to a certain historical stage.

The earliest creator legend is Cangjie, the historian of the Yellow Emperor. This is mentioned many times in ancient books. In the book "Huainanzi" written by Liu An, the Huainan king of the Han Dynasty, it said: "The former Cangjie wrote the book". Later, Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian also said in the book "Historical Records": "The creation is even more, and it has not been done before. If Cangjie does...Yes." In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Xu Shen made it clearer in "Shu Wen Jie Zi" The ground wrote: "The history of the Yellow Emperor, Cangjie, see the traces of birds and beasts far away, knowing the differences between the divisions and the rationale, and the initial creation of the book." In terms of. That is to say, Cangjie invented and created words only after seeing the footprints of birds and beasts.

Because Liu An, Sima Qian, Xu Shen and others are all famous figures in Chinese history, their works have great academic value, especially Xu Shen, who is also the earliest expert in Chinese history to systematically study Chinese characters, so the book Some of his words are often believed by future generations. Affected by them, the theory of "Cangjie invented and created words" gradually spread and had a huge impact. Until today, when people mention words, they always think of Cangjie.

It can be said that in the minds of some people, Cangjie has become the ancestor of Chinese characters. In order to commemorate him, it is said that someone from the slave society built a "Cangjie Crafting Platform" for him in Changli Village, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province, where he created characters. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Shaanxi Governor Bi Yuan also put the five characters on the road. beside. In addition, some schools before the liberation often had his tablet. New students who entered school had to kowtow to the tablet before enlightenment to literate.

After the liberation, this system was naturally unpopular, but the relationship between Cangjie and writing did not stop here. Although "Cihai" did not confirm that he was the invention and founder of writing, according to the "Xunzi. Jie Bi" article, "the good books are all, the Cangjie is the only one", it is still made. The interpretation of "may be just a representative of the ancient collation of characters" still draws the relationship between Cangjie and characters.

In addition to Cangjie, there are also the legendary Shennong writing Suishu, Huangdi writing Qushu, Zhu Rong writing ancient writings, Shaowu writing Fengfeng writing, Cao Yang writing tadpole writings, Cao Xin writing fairy writings, Emperor Yao writing tortoise writings, and Dayu Zhu Jiuding and Zhong Dingwen, etc., and so on, are all about the creation of words.

Some of the people mentioned above are all characters in ancient myths or legends. Although myths are the shadow of history, they cannot be equated with history after all, because there have been endless debates about the existence of these people in history, believers say The unbelievers say that there is nothing, especially Cangjie. After more than 2,000 years of textual research and research, people still say their own things, and no one can convince anyone.

However, one thing is certain. Every progress in history is inseparable from the practice of the masses, and writing from scratch is no exception. In this regard, Lu Xun said: "Giving credit to the creation of characters" is "based on assumptions", and put forward the view that "writings are budding among the people".

"Book of Changes·Xici" said: "The ancient times were ruled by knotting the rope, and later sages changed it with the book." It can be seen that the text appeared after the knot. Based on the research of pottery unearthed in Banpo, Xi'an, some people discovered some symbols on these pottery. The strokes are simple and the shapes are regular, about 6000 years ago. Later, on the black pottery unearthed in Zhangqiu County, Shandong, there were also carved symbols, but they were few in number, about 4,000 years ago. Some people infer that these symbols may be the earliest primitive characters in China. Unfortunately, people cannot identify them. Although some people have made some guesses, the meaning is still unknown. Therefore, some people think that these depictions are nothing more than a mark engraved by the producer, and have nothing to do with words.

It wasn't until the appearance of Oracle bone inscriptions in the Shang Dynasty that there were physical materials of early Chinese characters, which, like the inscriptions that appeared later, can be said to be the earliest square characters in China.

In this way, it is impossible for Cangjie to create square characters more than 5,000 years ago. At the same time, there is no evidence to prove that Cangjie created Oracle and Bronze inscriptions. However, it is completely possible to systematically summarize Banpo's later depictions and marks, and create primitive characters that people at that time can recognize and understand.

From this, can we say that it is Cangjie who summarizes and categorizes the fragmented expressions and marks created by primitive humans over the long years, and gives them standardized meanings, thus forming the most primitive The embryonic form of the characters, and laid the foundation for the later formation of oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions. If this is the case, Cangjie is well-deserved as the originator of Chinese characters. Whether this is really the case remains to be further verified.